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Fire is destroying the Amazon jungle in Brazil. The jungle, according to some findings, produces about 20 per cent of the world’s oxygen. Although agriculture by the slash-and-burn technique has been in practice in that region of Brazil, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) of that country has detected 85 per cent increase in forest fires this year compared with the same period last year. Researchers have pointed out that the fire count this year — 75,000 fires were reported across Brazil of which more than half were reported from the Amazon region — is higher than it was during the past decade during which restrictions on deforestation were strictly enforced. The government of far right leader Jair Bolsonaro is being blamed for encouraging such agriculture despite international outcry against this kind of wanton practices that destroy one of the largest carbon sinks of the world. The Brazilian president, it is alleged, was encouraging cattle ranchers and loggers to build on forested land.
Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing and has pressed the military of his country into service to fight the blaze. But it may just be a band-aid solution to the harm already inflicted. Bolsonaro has also rejected international attention on the issue. When French president Emmanuel Macron expressed concern over the fires and the resulting smoke cloud sweeping Brazilian cities such as Sao Paulo, and invited G7 leaders to discuss the fires at the summit of the grouping he hosted at Biarritz, Bolsonaro retorted that it was an ‘internal issue’. The Brazilian president cannot but say otherwise as he does not believe in climate change. He regards the Amazon as a “virgin” that should be “exploited” for agriculture, mining and infrastructure development. The leader went to the extent of ordering the environment minister of Brazil, Ricardo Salles, to sack 21 of the 27 senior officials at the environmental protection agency of his country, the Ibama. The Brazilian president is living in a self created paradise and is likely to exact a heavy price for his foolhardiness from the world at large. There are ample examples from around the world for Bolsonaro to refer to and learn from. One of the latest such instances is that of flash floods and landslides that caused immense damage in Uttarakhand and Kerala in India as well as numerous other instances of natural calamities that are most likely being precipitated by a troubled environment.
While leaders such as Bolsonaro willingly capitulate to corporate pressures and their own convictions, the price to pay is quite high.
We in Odisha, too, should be worried that although the state is rich in mineral wealth, the administration proposes to open the doors to miners and bring development which could further destroy the local environment. Development, or as most Indians prefer to use the word Vikash, should not be delinked from the long-term well-being of not just the people of the state but the entire world. It is time alternative ways of building and material technologies are explored to provide dwellings and infrastructure to mankind. Apart from sheer and intense greed of rulers, population pressure also is bound to warrant greater exploitation of natural resources. No government will be able to resist the pressure if the situation continues to grow unchecked. It would, therefore, be prudent to study in detail what population levels can be supported by specific, vulnerable regions and ensure that such spaces are not overpopulated. Scientific restrictions are also required to ensure that constructions comply with sustainability needs of a region. It is true that every human being needs a home for her/himself. However, the costs that such mounting needs are exacting from the natural world are huge. Little attention is being paid to recycle and reuse of precious resources. At some level everywhere, there are Bolsonaros working with blinkered perceptions, The Brazilian President’s argument that the world is developing fast while expecting his poverty ridden country to safeguard the lungs of the world is unjust for his citizens. Crass arguments like this must be very appealing to Brazilian citizens.
Already the Amazon jungles, it is claimed, have lost up to 15 per cent cover and these lands have given way to drier savannah known as cerrado. Destruction of up to 25 per cent of these forests can have catastrophic impact on the environment of the world. The fires of the Amazon must be contained through action from across the world. It is a global catastrophe. All of us have a big stake in it.
